Investigation of the association of hedonic hunger status with social media addiction and obesity in adults

Hedonic hunger is defined as appetite and impulse for the purposes of pleasure tothe food consumed without physiological energy needs. Visual stimuli play an important role in the occurrence of hedonic hunger. One of the most common platform where visual stimuli are encountered is social media. Use of social media at a level that affects the daily activities of a person and relations with his/her family and friends constitutes social media addiction. In this study, the relationship between hedonic hunger, social media addiction and obesity in adults (n=327) was investigated. Participants' hedonic hunger status and social media addiction were evaluated using the "Power of Food Scale" and "Social Media Addiction Scale-Adult Form" respectively. The "Visual Analog Scale" was used to determine the participants' desire for delicious foods. When the participants were classified according to their BMI values: 8,6% (n=28) were underweight; 62,4% (n=204) were in the normal range; 19,3% (n=63) were overweight; and 9,7% (n=32) were obese. It has been determined that hedonic hunger in obese individuals is higher than in normal and underweight individuals (p<0,05). It was concluded that there is a significant positive moderate relationship between food power and social media addiction. Significant positive moderate level between nutritional power and cream cake and patisserie products. It was determined that there was a significant positive and weak relationship between chocolate and chocolate products, chips, fast food foods, french-fries, bread types, pasta, and pastries.Keywords: Hedonic Hunger, Social Media Addiction, Obesity, BMI